Popular Science Review - Introducing Chaos

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Review - Introducing Chaos - Ziauddin Sardar & Iwona Abrams

It is almost impossible to rate these relentlessly hip books - they are pure marmite*. The huge Introducing ... series (about 80 books covering everything from Quantum Theory to Islam), previously known as ... for Beginners, puts across the message in a style that owes as much to Terry Gilliam and pop art as it does to popular science. Pretty well every page features large graphics with speech bubbles that are supposed to emphasise the point.

Does it work in practice? The result is variable, not surprisingly as the books have different authors, though it has to be said that the concept is magnificently brave and innovative, whether or not the outcome is good. In the case of the Chaos book, the outcome is so-so.

Things don't start off well with a first page on Yin and Yang - and this attempt at knit-your-own-yoghurt Eastern philosophical trendiness recurs regularly. Occasionally the author seems to get things wrong - the book asserts that "conventional astronomy, for example, is interested in knowing when a system of three planets will line up." (As opposed to why their orbits are elliptical.) This seems to confuse astronomy with astrology. Elsewhere it is claimed that VHS videos triumphed over Betamax because of longer playing time, rather than the true commercial reason of dominance of the rental market.

The text is sometimes, frankly, a bit dull. You'll get some really odd graphic, then a bit of text that wouldn't seem out of place in a High School textbook. And worst of all, the book's picture of chaos harks back to the heady days when it was thought it would change the world, rather than be a concept that was fascinating but without much practical application.

In its defence, this is probably the quickest way to get a basic grounding in what chaos is about - but it can't rival Gleick's superb book on the subject.

Update - now reformatted in a more pocketbook size, with a more attractive cover than the old one and the subtitle A Graphic Guide, it's still the same marmite of a book inside.

*Marmite? If you are puzzled by this assessment, you probably aren't from the UK. Marmite is a yeast-based product (originally derived from beer production waste) that is spread on bread/toast. It's something people either love or hate, so much so that the company has run very successful TV ad campaigns showing people absolutely hating the stuff...

Read about the companion volumes Introducing Quantum Theory and Introducing Relativity.

Only in paperback.

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

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